


Love and Affection

by Jain



Category: Star Trek XI
Genre: Character of Color, Community: ladies1st, F/M, First Time, POV Third Person, Past Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 23:34:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/pseuds/Jain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even the few days she'd spent on Earth had been sufficient for Gaila to know that the textbooks she'd read on Terran social mores were woefully inadequate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love and Affection

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [cloudydaise](http://cloudydaise.livejournal.com/).

There's a human joke: "How do you know an Orion woman's in the mood?"

"She's breathing."

Gaila heard it the first week she came to Starfleet Academy. There were a number of loud groans in response; apparently the joke was an old one.

If she'd been at home, she'd have known what to do: she would have drawn attention to her presence by crossing the speaker's path, and, if he hadn't apologized immediately, she would have insulted his mother's family for allowing such an unmannered child to leave home before he'd been taught better. Then his friends would either defend him, in which case Gaila would avoid that entire circle in the future, or they would apologize for their friend's bad behavior, in which case she would have won herself allies.

But this was Earth, not Orion, and even the few days she'd spent there had been sufficient for Gaila to know that the textbooks she'd read on Terran social mores were woefully inadequate.

She turned to go without catching anyone's eye. Before she'd walked more than a few paces, however, she heard a clear, female voice behind her say, "Excuse me, but could you keep your xenophobia to yourself when you're in public?" Gaila froze and looked back. There was a slim, brown-skinned human in cadet reds glaring at the man who'd spoken.

He shrugged, unconcerned. "It's just a joke. Besides, it's not as though there isn't a grain of truth to it, right? No big deal."

The woman glared harder. "It's a big deal to me."

"Why do you care so much? It's not like there are any Orions around to hear me."

So he hadn't seen her, then; Gaila hadn't been sure before if his comments had been intended as a deliberate attack. Not that it really made it better to know that they had been meant generally.

"My best friend's Orion, and I don't appreciate her species and her culture being insulted like that."

The man shook his head. "Whatever. If your friend's not like that, then I wasn't talking about her."

"No, you still were," the woman said, her voice low and angry.

One of the man's friends pulled him away at that point; the woman didn't follow.

Gaila thought the woman might approach her after that, but instead she turned and headed towards one of the dorms. Gaila hurried to catch up with her. "Hey," she called.

The woman turned around. "Hey." She made a complicated face that was half-grimace and half-smile, by which Gaila assumed she meant to apologize for the other Terran's insult without wanting to actually bring up what he'd said. "You're Cadet Gaila, right? We're in Introductory Andorian together."

Gaila nodded. She didn't recognize the other woman, but the classes for first-year students were very large, and there were enough humans that it was hard to notice any individual one. "Sorry, I don't remember your name."

"Uhura. It's nice to meet you."

"You, too," Gaila said politely. Then she asked the question that had prompted her to chase after Uhura in the first place: "You have an Orion friend?" As far as she knew, she was the only Orion on Earth; certainly, she was the only one attending Starfleet.

Uhura shook her head. "No, I lied about that. I didn't want to draw you into the argument since you were leaving, but I also wanted that guy to know that there _are_ people who could be personally affected by him sounding off in public like that."

"Oh, okay."

"Sorry," Uhura said, a little uncertainly, as if she weren't sure whether she'd offended Gaila or not.

Gaila just shrugged. "It's fine."

There was an awkward silence. Gaila could go back to her dorm, with her roommate whom she half-suspected of being a robot: she appeared human, but she never smiled, rarely slept, and studied fourteen hours a day. But Uhura was in one of Gaila's classes; she didn't dislike Orions; she was pretty and she smiled sometimes. Gaila had been on Earth for not quite four days, and that seemed--perhaps due to desperation--like a reasonable beginning.

"I heard that there's a cafe a couple streets over that sells raktajino," she blurted out before she could change her mind. "Do you want to get some with me?"

The expression on Uhura's face went from vaguely uncomfortable to assessing, and then she smiled. "I've never tasted raktajino, but I've been meaning to try it. I can only spare half an hour or so, though." She rolled her eyes. "Shuttle flight test tomorrow. But, sure, that sounds like fun."

* * *

Being Uhura's friend suddenly got a lot better midway through their second year.

It hadn't been bad before that--except for the very minor problem of Uhura's alcohol tolerance being even higher than Gaila's, which meant that Gaila had to watch herself very carefully whenever they went out if she wanted to be able to crawl out of bed the next day without her head falling off. But then, right around the time they'd put in the paperwork requesting to be roommates their third year, Uhura stopped having sex.

At first Gaila was worried about her. Uhura didn't sleep with as many people as she did, but she was far from celibate. For her to just stop hooking up with no explanation was a troubling sign; maybe she had an embarrassing STI, or was overwhelmed with schoolwork, or had had a bad sexual experience. Gaila dropped a number of hints that she was available to talk about anything, at any time.

Uhura ignored the hints. However, she also continued to look healthy and cheerful--possibly even happier than she'd been before. Eventually, Gaila stopped worrying.

Which was great not only on its own merits, but because it meant she could take full advantage of Uhura's new celibacy. Now when the two of them went out for drinks and someone(s) approached their table to flirt, Gaila didn't have to check with Uhura first before making her own choice.

It had never been a _problem_ before. There was a flattering stream of interested people who approached them, and most of the time she and Uhura had gravitated towards certain of those people without getting in each other's way. It was only rarely that they'd both found themselves flirting with the same person, at which point they'd decide through a quick eyebrow communication which of them would give way to the other. (Uhura had professed herself unwilling to have sex with her best friends, or else Gaila would have simply suggested threesomes on those occasions.)

Even so, there was a noticeable improvement in the number and quality of Gaila's hook-ups after Uhura took herself out of the game, and Gaila enjoyed it for all it was worth.

Jim Kirk happened around then.

Gaila came back from the bar one night with a couple of fresh drinks each for her and Uhura, to find an attractive human leaning against their table. He and Uhura were talking in Andorian; Gaila could pick out a few words here and there, but she'd never bothered to take more than the required introductory course, and both of them were talking fast. Still, she was pretty sure she heard Uhura say, "Not even if the waters flowed outdoors," which she'd always enjoyed for the elegance of phrase and for the fact that their instructor had taught it to them while the sun glinted off the rippling bay right outside the classroom window.

The man smiled in response. It was a nice smile: a little cocky and self-satisfied, but those were traits that Gaila shared, as well, and she liked seeing them in others.

She slid her and Uhura's drinks onto the table, momentarily disrupting the discussion, and sat between Uhura and her admirer.

The man turned his smile on Gaila; it was even more brilliant up close. "Hi. Jim Kirk," he said and stuck out his hand.

"Gaila," Gaila said, shaking it.

"They don't have last names on her world," Uhura interjected.

Kirk gave Uhura a sidelong glance and laughed a little; apparently that was a joke between them. "I do know a little bit about Orion culture," he said, then added to Gaila, "Though I'm always happy to learn more."

Uhura rolled her eyes; Gaila smiled at him, took a sip of the fizzy pink drink that the male Tellarite bartender had recommended, and licked her lips deliberately.

"You're not interested, right?" she asked Uhura fifteen minutes later while Kirk was off ordering himself another drink, because there had definitely been flirting, but Uhura had also said "no." Which, given that Uhura didn't often change her mind once it was made up, probably meant Gaila didn't even have to ask, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

"Believe me, you can have him," Uhura said, laughing. "I just hope you don't regret your decision too much."

Her warning was misplaced. Kirk wasn't the best lover Gaila had ever had, but he was definitely in the top twenty, and he was generous about fingering and licking her towards her last three orgasms after he'd bottomed out after two.

When Gaila had finished shivering pleasantly, he kissed her with lips that were still salty and wet. "Do you want me to go, or can I sleep here?" Kirk asked. "I prefer spending the night, but if your culture doesn't do that, it's fine."

Orion culture _did_, which was part of the problem. The longer men stuck around, the more of a claim they thought they had on you. Gaila shook her head, and Kirk shrugged, looking only a little regretful, and kissed her again. "Thanks for an awesome night," he said, and pulled his clothes back on and left.

* * *

Under ordinary circumstances, that would have been the end of it. But then Gaila bumped into Kirk a few months later at her favorite cafe, and, after chatting for half an hour about the latest warp coil innovations coming out of the Vulcan Science Academy, he invited her back to his room.

"You're welcome to stay if you like," he said, yawning contentedly, several hours later. "My roommate's out of town for the weekend, so we've got the whole room to ourselves."

Her stomach tensed a little, but Gaila lay her head back onto his pillow. First, though, she needed to make a couple things clear. "You don't start anything when I'm asleep," she warned him. "You want sex, you wake me up first. Otherwise, I swear I'll report you for rape." It was a mostly empty threat; it would be her word against his, and sensitivity training for police couldn't always dispel certain prejudices. But hopefully it would communicate how sincere she was.

"Okay," Kirk said, looking at her with serious eyes. "I won't." He grinned suddenly. "This doesn't have to be a reciprocal thing, though, just so you know. You are totally encouraged to touch me whenever you want."

"If you behave, I might," Gaila said, and Kirk grinned in response.

She kept her hands to herself that night. On the other hand, so did Kirk, which she appreciated. He woke up at a time that she usually pretended didn't even _exist_ and shook her awake with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Hey," he whispered. "Mess hall opens in forty minutes. You up for another round before then?"

Gaila smiled and tugged his head down to her breasts, where Kirk sucked on her nipple through the fabric of her bra.

"Guess that's a 'yes,'" he mumbled through a mouthful of taupe satin.

* * *

That encounter presaged several others just like it, until it was Gaila's third year and she'd had sex with Kirk more times than she'd slept with any other single person. She frowned a little to herself. "Uhura?"

"Mmm?" Uhura didn't lift her head from her data padd; Gaila hoped she was listening.

"What would you call it when you feel affection and trust for a man?"

Uhura looked up in what seemed to be surprise. "A friend, you mean?"

Gaila frowned harder. Most humans, Uhura included, had friends of multiple genders, but Gaila couldn't help but find it strange, even after three years on Earth. "No. Maybe. Mostly we just have sex."

"Do you think you might love him?"

"_Love_ him?"

Uhura shrugged. "Well, if you like him and you trust him, but he's not the same as your other friends..."

"_That's_ what romantic love is?"

"It's certainly part of it." Uhura set her padd aside, a sure sign that she was interested in the conversation. "Why, what do you think romantic love is?"

"Possession," Gaila said promptly.

"Oh." There was a brief silence, and then Uhura said, "That can be part of love, too, but I think most humans feel that it's one of the less important parts. Ideally, if not always in practice."

Gaila nodded without answering, her mind flashing back to all of the romantic couples she'd known over her past three years and change at the Academy. Their territoriality had been the most obvious--and disturbing--aspect of their relationships, but perhaps those relationships had had other characteristics and Gaila hadn't noticed.

"If you're curious about the subject, you could try watching some romantic holovids," Uhura suggested.

Gaila made a face. "I watched some my first year on Earth. They were...unhelpful."

"Maybe you'd like Betazoid vids better. Since Betazoids are telepathic, a lot of the thoughts and feelings of the characters' have to be explicated through subtitles. It takes a little while to get used to, but once you do, they're really interesting to watch." She lowered her eyes in apparent embarrassment. "I have a few saved in my files. We could watch them together if you like."

"All right," Gaila said. "We can try that."

After an exhaustive study of Betazoid romances--Uhura's "few vids" had turned out to be twenty-seven--Gaila was prepared to say that it might be love, after all.

"I think you should tell him," Uhura said. She smiled a little. "There are no guarantees, of course, but he might feel the same, and that could be...really wonderful."

Gaila wondered idly if Uhura would give the advice were Gaila to confess _who_ she was quite possibly in love with. She'd already decided to tell Uhura if she were to ask, but so far Uhura had been surprisingly disinterested in pressing Gaila for details. "He wouldn't misinterpret it as a sign that I wanted to be monogamous?" Gaila asked.

"He might," Uhura admitted. "But I'm sure you could explain the situation. He does _know_ you, after all."

"That's true." Gaila considered that a moment. Kirk actually listened very well, despite appearances to the contrary. And even if he didn't feel romantic love for her, he wasn't likely to respond badly; he'd taken everything else Gaila had told him in stride, even when they'd traded sexual fantasies one night a couple months back. Not many human men were able to do that. Finally, she nodded. "Okay. That sounds like it might work. I'll tell him the next time I see him."


End file.
